


The Other Law We Live By

by ashen_key



Category: Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen, Motherhood, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-22
Updated: 2012-07-22
Packaged: 2017-11-10 11:29:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/465781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashen_key/pseuds/ashen_key
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You threatened a class of eight-year-olds that included my son. You understand how I can't let it slide. Don't you?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Other Law We Live By

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Anuna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anuna/gifts).



> Written for the [Clint Barton/Natasha Romanoff Promptathon](http://be-compromised.livejournal.com/60569.html), for the prompt _Maternity could only increase Natasha's scary potential. Try testing that theory (and you know, harming Clint and their kid or kids) and get into serious danger._
> 
> Title comes from [The Female of the Species](http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-female-of-the-species/) by Rudyard Kipling.

They are sitting in a warehouse office, watching each other across the table. He's in his thirties, but only just, with too-short blond hair and prison tattoos dancing up his muscled arms. He's armed and nervous with it, fingers tapping the table like they need something to hold. 

She is over a decade older but looks younger, a short and beautiful women with a serene poise. Her red hair is pinned up, and she's slung her jacket over the chair behind her, revealing her infamous gauntlets. She meets his gaze and says nothing long after social norms would dictate that someone speak. 

He breaks. 

“Look, this is bullshit,” he says in Russian, accent from the Ukraine border. “We didn't even know your kid was there.”

She raises one of her immaculately curved eyebrows, just a little. “So you're more incompetent than I first thought.” Her own accent still has traces of the Volga region where she was born, and her tone is pleasantly neutral. “How is this a defence?”

“We weren't even after him-”

“No. You were after Grace Lin, and so you threatened a class of eight-year-olds. That included my son. You understand how I can't let it slide. Don't you?” 

He swallows, rolls his shoulder back, lets his gaze scuttle to the corners of the room before looking back at her. He can't look away for long. 

“My boss promises that-”

“Where is he?”

“I, I am not-”

“Where is he?” Then she sighs. “I am not interested in killing you. You're an underling, you just follow orders. I don't waste my time with underlings. But if you do not cooperate, I'll make your death an example.”

He grins at her, all teeth and bravado. “Rumour is you're SHIELD now, Widow. That means that there are rules-”

“They aren't holding my leash right now." She smiles, slightly. "Answer the question, or I'll get creative.” 

He stares at her, and she meets his gaze, forces his smile to buckle and vanish. 

He spills.


End file.
